Oakdale was going to have a very good top 5 for this year, but one of their guys got hit by a bus (they would have made NXN if he didn’t) so he got on the cusp between JV and varsity, then they had to recruit a sophomore from the football team, who was their constant 5th man.
Next year they will have 4 studs returning and will need to find a 5th from somewhere if they want to go to NXN
Have the top runner identify as a "they" and count him as your first and second runner. This will bump 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to 5, and so on. If males can compete as females now, this should be allowed.
Have the top runner identify as a "they" and count him as your first and second runner. This will bump 2 to 3, 3 to 4, 4 to 5, and so on. If males can compete as females now, this should be allowed.
The reality is you're only going to be as good as your 5th guy. What I would do is see who has put in a solid summer of training and identify 1 or 2 guys and just keep things low key for the early part of the season. When you get to a big mid season invite in late Sept/early Oct pull one of your teammates aside and say hey look we really need you out there today. Then have your 2 of your top 4 guys run with your number 5 guy for the first half of the race, after that he's on his own to gut it out.
It’s not really fair to put pressure on a kid whose upside might be 50th place, or maybe as far back as 100th. It’s really up to him to decide if that makes sense to him. It’s not his fault if there are only 4 good runners on the team.
To build the 5-6-7 guys up, in addition to obviously increasing mileage and decreasing rests over the course of the season, have them stick with the 1-4 pack for partial intervals with more rest toward the beginning of the season, so that they're going the same pace but for less distance with more rest. For instance, I could stick with a much better group for 2x2M on their 4M tempo at first and soon after could do the 4M tempo a minute off of their pace and then got gradually closer. But you might have those guys running, say, 400 of an 800, or every other 400 of a mile repeat, but at the same pace as the 4th guy, and then gradually extend those. This may allow them to keep up for the whole distance eventually.
To build the 5-6-7 guys up, in addition to obviously increasing mileage and decreasing rests over the course of the season, have them stick with the 1-4 pack for partial intervals with more rest toward the beginning of the season, so that they're going the same pace but for less distance with more rest. For instance, I could stick with a much better group for 2x2M on their 4M tempo at first and soon after could do the 4M tempo a minute off of their pace and then got gradually closer. But you might have those guys running, say, 400 of an 800, or every other 400 of a mile repeat, but at the same pace as the 4th guy, and then gradually extend those. This may allow them to keep up for the whole distance eventually.
We’re not talking about football at Alabama. The 5-7 guys should be having fun, and if you push them that hard, they’ll quit and join the golf team.